Lost Time: An Original Story Based on Black Bullet
by Olympic Titan
Summary: One man doesn't know who he is, found on the ground bleeding. Rescued and taken in by Tendo Civil Security, he joins them and embarks on his quest to recover his past. But dark forces seek revenge that will drive this man and one close to him into a fight for survival in this game of cat and mouse. Discontinued: Reboot coming ASAP, will be part of a set of original works.
1. Prologue

Voices…...there were voices all around him. Were they voices? Or were they just random noises, he did not know. But that wasn't important right now, what was was that he needed to figure out where he was and what was going on. But even more importantly: what was his name? "Ugh...hrm" he grunted as he tried to stand up, but he immediately fell face first in the ground. Exhaustion and several broken ribs, four to be exact, plus several bruises, cuts, and internal bleeding all over his body, it didn't help that the cuts were bleeding as well. How did he just manage to diagnose what was wrong with him? He did not know the answer.

"Humph….aah…..haah…..haaaah" With some effort, he managed to roll himself onto his back to face the night sky. He laid there for a couple of minutes with black clouding the edges of his vision, he had at least solved the riddle of the noises around him, it was raining and there was a sewage drain near him. He continued to make attempts to move but it was a failure as he was too numb to move and anything he did feel was pain. After who knows how long of lying on the ground, he started to hear running footsteps approaching him. There were four of them, he thought, and right on cue, four faces appeared to above him. They were kids, three girls and a boy, one was a gorgeous young woman, about the age of a highschooler, the boy was around the same age. The other two girls seemed to be about the age elementary school students, one had crimson hair tied into two pony tails, and the other had short blond hair.

They were speaking something, trying to get a response out him, he could not make out what they were saying because all he could hear was a jumble of words. The black around his vision started to enlarge just as the boy whipped out his cell phone to call someone, probably an ambulance from the looks of it. Then everything went black and silent as he slipped into unconsciousness.


	2. Waking Up to Hell On Earth

Bright fluorescent lights blinded his vision as the young man began to regain consciousness. Everything was blurry at first but eventually his vision returned to normal. He reached up and touched his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. "Well, look who finally woke up" a voice said to the man's right. He turned his face to see an elder man in a lab coat, a doctor, he thought. "Where am I?" he said; "A hospital, some kids brought you here and paid your treatment, they're in the lobby if you want to fetch them." replied the doctor. "Yeah," the man said, "it'd probably help them if they know I'm okay." "Certainly...nurse, would you go fetch those kids?" asked the doctor. "Yes, Doctor Amari." a voice said from behind the curtain, a door opened and closed.

"I must say, this is a rare case." continued the doctor. "Why?" asked the man as he struggled to sit up. "First of all, you're staying down, you were pretty injured when the kids found you so no sitting up for now, Doctor's orders. Second, it is rare to see a foreigner nowadays, especially a foreigner who can speak Japanese as fluently as you do. Third, a foreigner with no form of identification on their body, even DNA test that we done on you came up empty, we did because we had no other way to attempt to identify you, I'm sorry to say this but you're a ghost." "A ghost, doctor? I don't even know who I am." "That makes it even more challenging son, finding out who a person is that has no known history and doesn't even know who they are." "Sorry doc, I.." the man replied in a soft voice "There's no need for apology son," said the doctor, "I managed to deduce that you have Post-Traumatic Amnesia, the type that does not allow you remeber what happened before a certain traumatic incident." A sense of dread slightly gripped the young man, "Can I recover? I mean, is it possible to recover from something like this." The doctor's face twisted into a state of thought and after a bit, he replied, "It all depends, some patients do, while others don't." A brief silence followed after that where the two men sat in silence

The door to the hospital room opened and the nurse walked in, followed by two of the kids that found him on the ground. "Ah, Satomi-san and Tendo-san, our patient is finally awake." Two teenagers moved into the young man's line of sight, the boy had a small frame with some messy hair, the girl on the other hand was a lovely girl with hair cut in the style of a Japanese princess. The girl spoke first, "Hi, my name is Kisara Tendo" "And I'm Satomi Rentaro" followed the boy. "According to them, they found you unconscious just outside their office as they left for the night, they phoned an ambulance that brought you here and now, we are here." said Amari. "Thanks for helping me back there," said the young man, "though I have no idea how I ended up there." The young man looked around, "And the other two that were with you?" "They're sleeping in the lobby, have been for the last ten minutes. I don't blame them, it is 11:30 at night." said Rentaro. As soon as he said that, Kisara yawned rather loudly. "Get some sleep, I'm not going anywhere for awhile." said the young man. "Okay, we'll be back in the morning, good night umm…" Kisara's face showed a puzzled face. "Diego, Diego Caesar….I have amnesia, so I need a name and that's the first that showed up." said the young man before he made Kisara feel bad.

"Diego, I like that, it's a good hispanic name, it fits your ethnicity." remarked the doctor. "My ethnicity?" asked Diego. "Yeah, you have a hispanic complexion and that could mean that you are hispanic, at least you know something." answered the doctor. "Yeah, I guess that's a good start, night." said Diego "Good night….Diego" said the doctor.

. . . . .

A soft daylight broke through the window about three days later, Deigo felt like he had recovered enough to be able to stand easily. With a strain, Diego managed to stand himself up and rolled out of bed, careful to not injure himself further and not to knock the ice pack off his side. He walked over to a mirror and sink, after washing his face in the sink with cold water to force any sleep out of his body, he looked in the mirror at his face. His face was a light brown, with black hair and dark brown eyes, his face was very angular with no hint of any fat on his face. Diego looked around and noticed that some pants were on a chair near him, he put them on and tore off the hospital gown that he was in. He felt his pockets and was surprised to feel a small card in his pocket, he pulled it out and read it, it said, 'Two blocks south of Tendo Civil Security Offices, Storage Crate 097'. After pondering the meaning of the card he put it up and turned to walk back to the mirror, it was then that he noticed his physique in his reflection

He was surprised to find that his physique was very muscular, that of a man that has trained in combat very long and hard and had watched what he ate since he could remember. There was also something unusual about his body...he felt strong, incredibly strong, like he could throw a man through a wooden door if he wanted to, he also had many scars around his torso that were not fresh. He stood six feet tall and weighed 160-170 lbs.

Diego then turned to go to the window at the end of his room. As he looked out into the morning he noticed several skyscraper height black slabs of rocks in the distance. "Incredible are they not?" said a voice behind him; Diego whipped around to see Doctor Amari standing behind him, "What are?" asked Diego. "The Varanium Monoliths, they're what protects us from the Gastrea, a type of virus that infected the Earth about ten years ago, killed a lot of people and drove humanity to the brink of extinction." Amari sighed as walked to the window and placed his hands on the ledge, "I lost my wife and daughter to their onslaught. Ever since then, people have been living in fear of both them and the Cursed Children." "The Cursed Children?" asked Diego. "The Cursed Children are young girls that carry the Gastrea Virus in them, they are distinguishable because of their red eyes. It is truly saddening, most are killed when they are just infants, others are abandoned in the slums at the edge of town, many hate them, I used to be one of them, until I thought, 'why should I hate these girls for something that they have no control over? They didn't ask to be born this way, so why should I hate them' after that, I started to see the struggle they face everyday. Now, I try to help any way I can. In fact, the leader of the Tokyo Area, Lady Seitenshi, just managed to pass a bill that gives them basic human rights, quite impressive for a girl her age."

"What about those that survive? What happened to them?" asked Diego. "They're either go to live in the slums outside of town or they are recruited into the Civil Security system to fight the Gastrea alongside human partners called Promoters." Answered the doctor, "In fact, the four kids that brought you here are part of the Civil Security System, it's kind of sad to see kids on the front line, but I can't judge them, they may do it just to stay above water. But more importantly, you shouldn't be up! What did I tell you!?" "Yeah, sorry doctor," said Diego, "but I feel fine, honestly, I'm moving with barely any problems, I swear." "Hmmm, let me feel your ribs," said the doctor. Amari spent the next two minutes thoroughly running his hand over Diego's ribs to make sure that they have healed properly. "Incredible" murmured the doctor. "What is?" asked Diego. "Your bones have mended incredibly well, not completely but significantly improved compared to a couple days ago, which is not normal as most fractures like this take six weeks to heal at minimum."

"I probably just heal very fast doc" remarked Diego, "I have no memory so I don't have an explanation for it" "Even so, this is highly unnatural, well, I guess I can clear you to be discharged but I want you to not engage in any heavy physical movement for at least another two weeks, I'll give you a complete list of what to do to speed up your recovery, and I'll contact Satomi-san to inform them of your discharge." answered the doctor "Thank you doc." said Diego. As the doctor left, Diego turned and looked out across the Tokyo Area skyline, wondering what his life would be like now.


	3. Rebuilding Life

The next day, with some new clothes provided by the hospital, Diego strolled into the lobby, the ice pack that the doctor recently put on his injured ribs made his side cold and his shirt wet. On the other end of the lobby by the door were Rentaro and Kisara waiting for him, besides them, were two young girls, the other two that found him that night in the rain. "Diego-san, over here" beckoned Kisara with her hand. Diego slowly walked over to the group, "I'd like to introduce the rest of the staff at Tendo Civil Security: This one," she said pointing to the red haired one, "is Aihara Enju, Satomi-san's Initiator, the other one," she then pointed to the blonde one, "Is the latest employee to the company, Tina Sprout." The two girls bowed respectfully, and Diego returned the gesture.

"So, I guess the first course of action is to get some food to celebrate his discharge, Satomi-kun, we can eat at your apartment and your buying food." finished Kisara. Satomi groaned, and everyone laughed.

About an hour later, everyone was sitting around Rentaro's table enjoying the delicious food that Rentaro prepared. "Wow Rentaro, you're a pretty decent cook!" exclaimed Diego. "Thanks, kinda had to learn when I started to live alone," said Rentaro. "So, who all lives here?" asked Diego. "Myself and Rentaro," said Enju. "You can stay here if you need to since you don't have a home." she continued without breaking stride. "Hey, you can't just decide stuff without letting me know." yelled Rentaro who then looked at Diego, "but yeah, if you need a place for the night then you're welcome to stay the night." "He can live at the office after this till he can get on his feet," said Kisara.

"Thank you guys, I appreciate all that you guys have done for me," said Diego. Everyone smiled, and the party continued without a hitch, and everyone had a good time. Eventually, everyone except Diego fell asleep in Rentaro's apartment.

Diego quietly maneuvered around the sleeping bodies strewn all across the floor and picking up the dirty dishes as quietly as possible. When he was passing Kisara, he heard her murmur in her sleep, "Revenge, against Tendo, Rentaro, help me end this." Diego did admit that that phrase did raise some concerns, but he wrote it off as something that was too personal for him to involve himself in at this point in time. After placing the dirty dishes in the sink, he sat by the window and reached into his pocket again to pull out the card he found the day before. He studied it intently trying to discern what it could mean besides the obvious observation of it being an address to something. Perhaps it could hold a clue to his memory? Or maybe, it could be a clue to how he lost them in the first place? Or it could just be a trap, he couldn't know; what he did know however, was that it was something to definitely look into.

. . . . .

When morning came, and Tokyo began bustling because of the Saturday morning commute, Kisara and Diego passed the Tendo Civil Security Office on Kisara's way to school. "The office is on the third floor of the building," she said pointing upwards to the third floor, "you can live there until you can find a place of your own to live in." "Thanks Tendo-san, I really appreciate it," said Diego. "Please, call me Kisara, here's a key, we'll buy some basic stuff when I come home from school, there's food in the refrigerator," she said. "Thanks, I'll try not to eat it all out of boredom," said Diego jokingly. Kisara smiled and turned to go to school, leaving Diego standing in front of the office building. Diego turned and went inside the building a climbed the stairs up to the third floor and went through the door into the office. "Pretty nice," remarked Diego out loud and after looking around the office, reached into his pocket and pulled out the card that was with him in the hospital. He studied it and looked at a map that Kisara had in the drawers of the one of the desks. After a bit of detective work, he managed to pinpoint where the mysterious note was leading him.

Diego put up the map and walked down to the ground level and set out into Tokyo to find Storage Crate 097. After about five minutes of walking, he noticed four small crates stacked in pairs underneath a bridge behind a line of fence. He found the door and noticed it was unlocked, he walked through the gate and over to the crates, on the side he saw the number 097 was painted on the edge of the lowest container facing him. When Diego reached up to touch the number, the number caved in and slid back and out popped a black screen, after making sure no one was looking he reached to touch the screen, and a series of blue lines moved vertically and horizontally across the screen, a handprint scanner, thought Diego, now he knew that these crates belonged to someone with vast resources.

After about five seconds of lines scanning his hand print, the side of the box to his left caved in and opened slightly. Diego walked in and the light turned on automatically to show a very complex safehouse of sorts. The door closed behind him and everything powered up. What was inside the safehouse was rather impressive, there were two floors to the safehouse, hence the reason why there were four crates stacked one on top of each other in pairs next to each other. On the ground floor, there was a small kitchen, a desktop computer with three screens and behind a glass door was a small armory filled with two Government M1911 pistols, steel collapsible batons, an SMG, and other technical and weapon based gear. At the bottom of the cabinet were several rows of magazines, he picked one up and studied it, he somehow identified them as 0.45 ACP rounds, something that he shouldn't know as he didn't know the first thing about munitions. Another interesting thing about the bullets was that they were black. "Varanium, I guess." murmured Diego, he then put the rounds back and climbed the stairs to the second floor.

What he found on the second floor was perhaps even more vexing than what he found on the first floor, there was a shower, a black cylinder-like space with a keypad near by, a small closet, and a full sized bed. After inspecting the contents of everything upstairs, Diego walked back down and sat at the computer and noticed another note card underneath the mouse, he moved the mouse and grabbed the card and read what it said: Password-DC09785. He powered up the computer, and when it asked for the password, he punched it in, the computer pinged, and a schematic of the safehouse popped up, and all the specifics popped up as well. "Bullet resistant exterior, explosive resistant surface," said Diego, "interesting." Diego then spent the next few minutes studying where everything in the safe house was, everything seemed to be on the computer, including where some of the stashed cash and debit cards were. Then, Diego looked at the account balance in the financial section, and his jaw almost hit the floor, several hundreds of millions were in the account, just who was he before his memory loss?

After a few hours, which included taking some money that was stashed in a safe, Diego left the safe house and started back to the office, pondering just what he had witnessed inside those crates, he thought it might be best to refrain from telling the others as it was a safehouse and if anybody knew about it, it would be compromised; he was not aware why he had this thought process but it seemed so right that he decided to trust his gut instinct. When he got back to the office, he walked up and saw that Kisara was sitting at her desk working on a computer, "Working?" asked Diego. "Yeah, got some stuff to do today. Hey, I want to ask you something, could you join the company?" she said. "Excuse me?" said Diego, quite surprised. "I have a barely functioning kidney," said Kisara, "So I need another Promoter in the ranks, can you do it?" "I mean," said Diego, "I'll have to get a license and a right to carry guns, but I don't have any form of identification." "That won't be a problem," said Kisara turning back to her computer, "I pulled a couple of strings and you'll have an ID and just have to take the tests, but you'll only be partnered with Tina temporarily, but then we can pair you up with an Initiator of your own, and of course, you'll have to start from the bottom." "All right," said Diego, "I'll do my best" "Good," said Kisara with a smile, "Then study up."

. . . . .

The days turned into a week but eventually Diego took the tests for both his license to carry firearms and his license to be a Civil Security Officer. But not only did he pass it, he got perfect scores on both his license test and his firearms test, he did not know how he had the knowledge for all known forms of Gastrea or how he did not miss the targets during his firearms exam. After he got his results, he went back to the office and showed the rest of the company who had gathered there to await the news of his exams, he showed them the results and looks of shock washed over all four of them. "Believe me, I'm just as stunned as you are," said Diego. "Just who were you before your memory loss?" asked Enju, "Obviously someone that is highly skilled," said Kisara who then stretched out her hand, "Welcome aboard Diego." "Thanks, I'll try my hardest." said Diego grasping her hand in a firm handshake


	4. Debut

About a week later, Diego got his first job with Tina as his initiator, a small Gastrea infestation that if not taken care of fast enough would mean trouble for the people all around the area. He got a sponsorship from Miori Shiba and her company at the request of Rentaro, Rentaro even sent Diego's results to solidify the deal; long story short, he got the sponsorship with no problem. Diego sat quietly on the train while Tina sat next to him drinking a large soda that Diego bought for her with some spending given to him by the company so that she wouldn't fall asleep so quickly, it was pretty early in the morning after all. "How're you holding up Tina?" asked Diego turning to face Tina, "Pretty good, considering I'm nocturnal; but I'm getting used to live in the daytime." replied Tina with a smile. "Sorry we couldn't bring the sniper today, I just thought it wouldn't do to well in this situation." said Diego. "It's fine," said Tina, "this is just your first assignment so you can get a lay of the land." "Thanks, I'll do my best." replied Diego

After about a half hour of riding the train, the duo arrived at Shinjuku. They walked around till they found the address that they had been given by Kisara, their suspicions were confirmed when they noticed that part of the block had be sealed off by the police. When they approached the barrier, a middle aged police officer approached them and spoke, "Hey kids, you can't be here, we're in the midst of a situation." "Tendo Civil Security," said Diego holding up his ID, "you guys called because there was a Gastrea incident?" The officer looked surprised, "They're sending kids now? Well, you have the license and we did call for Civil Security agents, so come on, we'll show you what happened." "Thanks officer, let's go." said Diego and motioning for Tina to follow. Diego had been told that the Civil Officers were hated by police operatives, but Diego didn't this kindness blow past him. This officer was part of the minority that saw Civil Officers as helpful.

The officer led them into a small office building and up the stairs, when they reached the top of the stair where other police officers in armor were waiting, the head officer turned and explained the situation, "got the call about three hours ago, small case, some of us didn't think you guys were gonna show. One known infected, three possibly dead, no activity since the call, we've quarantined the building, nothing has gotten out so it's probably still inside." The officer pointed to where a couple more officers were, "it's all yours, good luck." "Thank you officer," said Diego and then turned towards Tina, "Ready?" "Yes" said Tina, her face hardening into something ready to fight. Three spheres started to hover around her, the aerial Shenfield devices, then Diego pulled out a phone and an earpiece. "Tina, call Rentaro's phone," he said putting the earpiece on. "What?" said Tina, and Diego held up the phone, "I borrowed it from Rentaro before we left, I've got an idea. I'll go in, and you use the Shenfield to scout ahead for me and find where the Gastrea is." "Okay" said Tina; Diego reached into his coat and pulled out an IWI Jericho 941. He stood in front of the door and turned to Tina, "call it." "Okay" said Tina and dialed the phone number. Diego answered the phone and after a brief sound check, Diego turned again to face the door and prepared to break it down, his senses sharpened and a rush of adrenaline filled his body, he feels like he had done this before multiple times though due to his memory loss, he did not know when or why.

"Breaching," he said, and with a powerful push kick, Diego kicked the door clean of its hinges, and it flew a few feet before falling which left everyone shocked. "Moving," said Diego as he moved into the apartment, checking all his sides while the Shenfield devices moved ahead of him, Tina's voice came in over the earpiece, "I've found the target, five meters ahead of you on the left." "Roger," said Diego quietly and he walked silently to the door to the next room, it was only then that he noticed that when he walked, there was barely any noise, it was obvious to him at that point that he was adept in stealth techniques, another piece of who he was found. Diego stopped just outside the doorway and listened intently until he picked up the faint breathing of something other than human on the other side.

With a burst of movement, Diego turned the corner to come face to face with a wolf type Gastrea, a stage 2, which made it look like a hellhound. The monster leapt at him and time seemed to slow as Diego aimed his weapon at the monster and pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession. Two loud bangs rang out and the monster fell in front of Diego dead with two holes in its head, Diego exhaled and spoke into the earpiece, "Target down, don't come in yet till I've checked the rest of the apartment." he turned again to inspect the crime scene. As if in a trance, he moved around the apartment examining everything, like he had detective skills in his repertoire, another piece of his past found he thought. "Found two of the bodies, both deceased, a woman presumed to be the mother and an older male, assumed to the be father." he said in the ear piece. He moved to another part of the apartment and noticed that something was off; wolves usually travel in packs. It took him two seconds to deduce that there was another Gastrea in the apartment with him. All of a sudden, Tina's voice came over the earpiece, "Careful, I'm picking up something else in the apartment with you!" At that moment, Diego dived towards the apartment living room just the wall behind him exploded and another stage two wolf Gastrea charged at him.

The shockwave of the explosion was enough to knock Diego even farther than he intended and he crashed onto a small wooden table. "Argh," yelled Diego as a sharp pain ran up his side, his ribs haven't completely healed yet, he was running a risk by taking this job in the first place. The Gastrea pounced towards him to finish the job, but Diego managed to refocus as his survival instincts kicked in. He bent his knees, and when the monster was close enough, he kicked with all his might, which sent the Gastrea crashing back into a bookshelf with a cry. He noticed that his gun had fallen out of his hand and back past the door, he got himself up and rolled towards it as the Gastrea pounced once again, crushing the table Diego was just on. Diego grabbed his weapon and fell onto his back as the Gastrea jumped for the third time. While it was in the air, Diego saw his chance and unloaded everything in his clip into the Gastrea, and it fell dead next to him.

Diego laid on the floor catching his breath and coughing while the police burst in after hearing the commotion. Tina ran over and helped Diego pick himself up as he was holding his side, and he was relieved to find that nothing was broken again and that there were only bruises. "Amari's gonna put through the ringer if he finds out about this," said Diego wryly. "You did well for your first time." said Tina, "Thanks, Tina," said Diego as he relaxed against the railing, "I appreciate the compliment." The chief officer walked up to him, "Thanks for the help young man, now who do I give credit to?" "Diego Caesar," said Diego still coughing, "Tendo Civil Security Corporation." "Got it, thank you." said the officer extending his hand, "I must say that was excellent work, what's your rank?" "I'm starting from the bottom, so my IP rank is 90,000," replied Diego.

"90,000!? That's not possible, what you just in there, was the work of a professional." exclaimed the officer. "Well, I'm an amnesiac," said Diego, "so I don't know how I got my hands on these skills." "Oh, I'm sorry, I did not mean any offense," said the officer, a sincere apology was evident in his words. "It's fine officer, I'm trying my best to recover, but I have enough support, plus I got almost perfect scores on the tests, so I start out with a higher rank than most." he replied with a smile while patting Tina on the shoulder. "That's good," said the officer, "it's good to have support from people by you; tell you what, I'll put in a request to have your IP rank raised substantially, someone of your skill doesn't deserve to be in the lower ranks..." "Are you sure?" said Diego, "Of course," said the officer, "call it my tip and I'll vouch for you, it's my thanks for making this a clean job and keeping my men from getting killed by one of those things. Tendo Civil Security Corporation right?" Diego nodded. The chief officer turned as he walked away, "If you ever need anything from the police, don't hesitate to call, say that you're a friend of Public Security Division Chief Yamasaki." They both then said their goodbyes and hurried back to the train station, on the ride home, Diego's cough softened, but it still hurt to cough and breath, they had to get back to the office soon.

Diego pulled out Rentaro's cellphone and dialed Kisara's number, she picked up almost instantly, "Rentaro," her voice came over the speaker, "what are you calling for now, I'm kinda busy." "Sorry Kisara, it's me, Diego, I borrowed Rentaro's phone before I left for the job, can you do me a big favor and prepare an ice pack for me, my ribs are bruised up, I'll deliver my report when I get there," said Diego through a bit heavy breathing. "Yeah, I will," said Kisara, "just get back in one piece." "Yes ma'am" Diego then hung up and relaxed against the chair of the train and focused on breathing slowly so it wouldn't hurt so much.


	5. Expanding Role

Another two weeks had passed before Diego went to see Doctor Amari so he could perform a checkup on his rib injury. The doctor thoroughly checks Diego over while Diego told him of his new job and how well it was going for him. And it was, over the last week, the company grew quite a bit due to Diego efficiently completing his assignments, Rentaro was also doing good, mostly due to Kisara pushing him to be better. By the time Diego had gone to see the doctor, his rank has reached that of 4,500; Diego also informed the doctor that he was taking good care of his body, working out regularly to regain the strength he feels that he has lost since waking up. "Good," said Amari, "I'm delighted it has worked out so well, your ribs have practically healed so now, you can resume regular activity, don't do anything too crazy now." "Yes, Doctor." said Diego, "I've got someone to introduce you to, come on in Kushina, it's all right."

The door to the doctor's office opened, and a small girl walked through the door. She had long black hair with yellow lines, almost like highlights, flowing down to her hip and she had a short blue dress on and knee-high boots, her eyes were black, but they were warm and a little nervous. She was moving her foot from side to side nervously. Diego beckoned her to come over to where the doctor and himself are sitting. "This is Kushina, my initiator." said Diego placing his hand on her shoulders, "she's a model Cheetah initiator." Kushina bowed respectfully, "Pleased to make your acquaintance." "Likewise." said the doctor. Kushina then moved over to the other side of the room and sat quietly.

"She's still taking some time to adjust to life outside of where she was earlier." said Diego turning back to the doctor, "it's been hard for her, for all of them." "She'll come around Diego," said the doctor, "you just got to give her time." Diego turned once again to Kushina and smiled then turned to face the doctor. "I'm thinking of registering the both of us to attend school at some point, though I don't know how they'll treat her if they find out she's a Cursed Child... actually, I do know, I'm no idealist. But I don't want to admit that she will face a lot of discrimination." "I hear that they are offering to school in the district where a lot of them live." replied the doctor. Diego shook his head, "I want her to get a proper education, nothing against what's happening out there, but I want her to get a full experience."

"You have to send her to school." a voice said from the doorway. The two men turned to see Kisara standing in the door with a duffel bag. "What're you doing here?" asked Diego. "I came to see if the doctor has determined if you have recovered or not," she said as she sat down in a chair next to Diego. "You can also go to Rentaro's school as well if you so choose." "What year should I enroll as?" asked Diego. "We could run a blood test to determine the range of your age, though I'd imagine that you could register for a second or third year, depending on what the test comes up as." said the doctor.

"I think that would be great, thanks," replied Diego. "I'll go and get a blood sample kit." said the doctor. He then got up and left the room, Kisara then turned to Diego, "So? Are you ready to go?" Diego looked at Kushina who stared back with hopeful eyes, then turned back to Kisara with a smile on his face, "Yeah, I am." They sat talking about everything from business to things that they read on the net recently. Eventually, Kushina walked up to them quietly and sat on Diego's lap. Finally, the doctor came back and took the blood sample from Diego's arm, "I'll see the age of the DNA we got and the blood sample I just made. I'll contact the company when I get the results." "Thank you, doctor," said Kisara.

The three of them excused themselves from the doctor's and headed out, but instead of turning towards the office, Kisara turned towards a more traditional part of town. "Where're you going?" asked Diego. "Training, Rentaro, and the others are already there; we want to see how you fight, as Tina said that you're alright in combat, plus it could help Kushina learn to fight and survive on the battlefield. I got your workout clothes Diego." she said holding up the bag she had in the hospital Diego turned to Kushina who was holding his hand, "Think you can do it?" Kushina nodded silently and spoke very softly, "Yes." Diego crouched in front of her, "I'll teach you something basic when we get there okay?" Kushina nodded again, Diego stood up and turned to Kisara, "Yeah, we'll go."

The three of them then set out to this more traditional part of town. After about ten minutes of walking through the streets, they came to a stop in front of a traditional Japanese house. "This is it," she said pointing to a big traditional house in front of them. Kisara knocked on the gate, and Enju opened it with a smile; Tina, Rentaro, and another girl were already inside. The girl and Kisara eyed with other with such passive aggressiveness that it changed the atmosphere to one that if ignited could end in a blood bath. The girl introduced herself as Miori Shiba, Rentaro, and Diego's sponsor. While Tina and Enju stroked Kushina's hair remarking how smooth it is, Kisara and Rentaro pulled Diego aside. "Rentaro, I want you to spar against Diego, go easy on him since we don't know if he's good at hand to hand combat." "Alright," replied Rentaro, "follow me, Diego." The two of them walked inside the dojo while the others gathered at one side of the room where the door was open to the outside of the house.

Diego and Rentaro walked onto the floor and got into position. Kisara raised her hand into the air, "Begin." and brought it down swiftly. Rentaro threw a simple punch, to begin with. In a sudden burst of motion, Diego moved his head left and let the punch pass over his right shoulder; at the same time, he moved his right arm over Rentaro left shoulder and grabbed his shirt, with a snap of his leg, he knocked Rentaro off balance. Diego then proceeded to throw Rentaro onto his back on the ground behind Diego with a crash. At the same time, Diego flipped onto his back and drove his elbow into Rentaro's abdomen. "Kaah," gasped Rentaro as the blow to his stomach forced the air out of him. Diego got up and reached his hand out to Rentaro who took it and stood up. "Sorry about that, but I think you're going to have to take this seriously," said Diego with a smirk on his face. When Diego looked at everyone else, they had looks of surprise on their faces.

"I guess we can skip the beginner's courses," said Diego with a smile. The two of them then turned and got back into position, after they were ready, Kisara then gave the signal again, only this time, no punches were to be pulled, it was the real deal. Rentaro gave a lightning fast side kick with his right leg which Diego avoided by retreating, Diego then swatted Rentaro's leg out of the air with his kick, moving upwards with his shin as the primary contact point. Diego then followed up his first kick with another one, a high side kick towards Rentaro's face; Rentaro ducked down and swept Diego's bottom foot out from underneath him, which caused Diego to fall onto his back.

Almost flowing, Diego jumped straight back up to continue the fight, when Rentaro tried to follow his previous attack with a punch, Diego pushed hand out of the way and trapped it lightly with his fingers while he delivered a left hook across Rentaro's face. The blow made Rentaro stagger backward in stunning fashion, but he quickly recovered by making another attempt to make a right straight punch land on Diego, which Diego countered with an elbow strike which knocked Rentaro's hand backward. The surprising lack of pain Rentaro felt from that attack surprised Diego, but Rentaro followed up with a low punch that struck Diego in the abdomen. Rentaro then snapped a roundhouse kick that made Diego slightly lose his balance; he firmly planted his feet to re-establish his footing. After regaining his footing, Diego mentally decided to push his limits by seeing just what he is capable of regarding combat as the battlefield was unforgiving, he then closed the distance between him and Rentaro quickly and began launching a salvo of attacks which allowed him to start combining his attacks and force Rentaro onto the defensive.

Rentaro noticed almost that Diego was fighting much more brutally than before like he was fighting to kill. Rentaro tried to counter several times, but whenever he tried to counter Diego and force them back into a standstill, it did not work. Rentaro determined that Diego used a mixture of fighting styles, but that wasn't entirely accurate, it was almost like there was no style at all. Rentaro also noticed that Diego wasted virtually no movement, showing that before his memory loss, he must have been an experienced fighter. Rentaro then felt that he had to go all out as well if he wanted to win, Rentaro activated the processor behind his left mechanical eye, and the world started to slow down as he began to process things faster. A metallic taste spread throughout his mouth as the skin on his right arm and left leg began to melt away showing black Varanium artificial limbs with blue outlining them.

Diego was at first, taken aback by this development, but then it started to make sense as to why when Diego hit those parts of Rentaro's body, it did not seem to affect him. Rentaro then came at Diego with increased speed that once again pushed the fight back to a balance between the two of them. Diego could not move faster than what Rentaro could anticipate thanks to whatever that mechanical eye could do, and Rentaro could not break Diego's defenses and over power him, and it did not help that his mechanical eye could barely process what it saw in time to counter Diego's attacks. Eventually the rhythm of back and forth fighting came to a head when Diego managed to land four kicks in rapid succession. The first hit Rentaro in his artificial left leg with Diego shin, this caused Rentaro's leg to bend inwards, knocking Rentaro off balance. The second kick hit Rentaro in ribs as the first kick disoriented him. The third kick was committed with the same right leg that delivered the other two kicks. For the third kick, Diego circularly whipped himself with his leg acting as a sort of sling, with the accumulated velocity, he slammed a back side kick into Rentaro's abdomen, the third kick sent Rentaro staggering backward. For the final kick, Diego employed a little acrobatics and pro wrestling technique; it only took a second to execute; Diego jumped towards Rentaro with his knees tucked in, when he was close enough, he extended his body that sent Rentaro rolling back and Diego in the opposite direction.

Diego flipped and got back into his position just as Rentaro did the same thing, moving back into a kneeling position. For his side, Diego saw flaps opening on Rentaro's leg, and a loud bang its appearance. "Holy Hell." murmured Diego softly. Rentaro then flew at him with incredible speed, crossing the distance between them in less than half a second. Diego knew that if he wanted to counter this speed, he needed to move faster than Rentaro. Diego waited for Rentaro to near him, and in a split second, let Rentaro pass him slightly; Diego then used the momentum to redirect Rentaro straight into the ground. Rentaro slammed onto the floor and laid there, defeated.

The entire match lasted about five minutes, and afterward, there was good sportsmanship to pass around, then the other training commenced. Miori left after being impressed with Diego's performance, Rentaro and Enju trained, Tina slept, Kisara worked on her swordsmanship, and Diego taught Kushina the basics of fighting. When the Rentaro and Kisara asked what style of fighting was used, Diego shrugged saying he didn't know and fought on instinct and muscle memory. They then trained there until the sun went down, and then they all headed home.


	6. The Big Job

"Enju just called," said Kisara with a bit of concern in her voice as she talked to Diego over the phone early in the morning, "Rentaro's pretty sick with a big cold and I need you to cover in his position." Today was Sunday, about a week had passed when it started to get cold, Diego had started teaching history, english, and mathematics to the children of the Outer District and the girls liked him, his job was going well as well and Kushina was slowly becoming better and adjusting to life with Diego; he also started attending Magata High School as a Third year, the same school that Rentaro attends, and he turned out to be a good academic, continuously scoring high in his classes. According to Kisara, this winter has been the coldest yet, so it made sense that people were getting sick. "What's the job?" asked Diego while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes while Kushina slept soundly in the futon next to him.

"Personal bodyguard to Lady Seitenshi." said Kisara, "Excuse me?" said Diego. "Lady Seitenshi employed Rentaro as her bodyguard during a meeting with another Area head a while ago, and it just kind of stuck. Anyways, I have already informed her of the situation, and she's told your school, so, she's ready to work with you." Diego yawned and stood up in the small one bedroom apartment that Kushina and himself shared. He's only seen the Seitenshi on TV so this was a big job. "What time does she want me to be there? Oh, and can I send Kushina to the office to stay with you?" he said stepping into the kitchen to begin making the day's breakfast. "Sure, and she wants you there by 10:30 am, no later." said Kisara and then she hung up. Diego sighed and set the the stove to heat up while he woke Kushina up, after she had gotten up and started to take a shower, Diego went back to his cooking, today's breakfast was scrambled eggs with ham, hot dogs and white rice, which Kushina has liked a lot. Kushina got out of the shower and they ate while the local news played on the television in the living room. After eating and cleaning the dishes, Diego hopped into the shower and took a quick one, he then shaved and put on pants with boots and a military jacket, put on his holster that was on his back and slipped his P99 into it. As soon as Kushina was dressed, the two of them headed out from the apartment and when they passed the office, Diego dropped Kushina off with Kisara for the day.

"I'll probably be back towards the end of the day, ok?" said Diego crouching to be level in eyeline with Kushina. Kushina nodded silently and when Diego started to stand up, she jumped up and hugged him and then ran into the office. "She's really emotionally attached to you." said Kisara, "Yeah I know," replied Diego, "I'm the first family that she's ever had that treated her like an equal." Diego turned and walked away from the office and towards the train station. After riding the train for about ten minutes into downtown and then walking towards where the Seitenshi lived. He approached the guard and showed his badge and they let him in. When he arrived at the door to the Seitenshi's palace, a maid appeared and introduced herself to Diego, she then led Diego into a press conference room where many reporters were already sitting. She then told Diego to go stand next to the chair where the Seitenshi would sit on the right hand side.

Diego quietly moved over to where the chair and podium sat and began looking around to acquaint himself with his surroundings. "Are you Satomi-san's replacement?" a quiet yet authoritative voice said from behind him. Diego turned around and his heart nearly stopped as the figure was standing behind him defied his expectations. She was a beautiful young lady with a pale complexion and a slim figure that was not too unhealthy. She had nearly white hair and light blue eyes, she wore an elegant dress suitable to her status that matched her hair color, and wore a white hat with a rose attached to it. Diego could barely speak as he was a bit flustered by the fact that a gorgeous girl was next to him, not to mention the person who quite literally ran the city he lived in, but he quickly managed to squeeze out a yes in response to her question. He also noticed that she reddened a bit when he turned around to face her.

"Yes, I am." said Diego. "Good, then let's get started." said the Seitenshi with a small smile. They then attended the press conference in which the Seitenshi answered policy questions, specifically her bill on giving the Cursed Children basic human rights that passed a month ago. About halfway into the conference, the Seitenshi picked up a note that she seemed to have found on her podium and when she took a moment to read it, her face paled. Diego noticed the change in her and went to the podium and read the note, written in red ink were four words, 'you are mine alone'. Diego took the note from her and told her that he will determine how it got onto her podium and who did it.


End file.
